No. 1 mistake: Fail to forecast
Today's Entrepreneur is David Laiderman. David is a Founder at OPER (Order. Pay. Earn. Redeem).
OPER (Order. Pay. Earn. Redeem) is the first mobile payment of it's kind offering free transactions to merchants. No more credit card fees, commissions, or montly fees. For users - earn 5% back on every purchase into one central rewards account.
David is an experienced bootstrapping entrepreneur with deep industry experience in online commerce, food transactions, and market expansion. He's invested in, helped operate, and sold 3 companies to date.
Originally in 2003, David co-founded YNot Advertising and Lionmenus.com (acquired by Orderup in 2012, a Groupon, Inc company). In 2009, David purchased 1/2 of the markets from YNot and created College Advertising Solutions to market and grow college branded online restaurant guides.
David went to Penn State University from 2000 to 2004 with a degree in Bachelor of Science (BS), Management, International Business & Engineering.
Here's a little about David Laiderman:
I am a(n): Entrepreneur
Companies I've founded or co-founded: OPER
Company exits (of companies you founded): College Advertising Solutions YNot Advertising, https://www.valleymagazinepsu.com/orderup-state-college-changes-the-delivery-game/
If you are an entrepreneur, why? I love eating Ramen.
My favorite startups: Postmates, Shazam, Dropbox, Raise, OPER
What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation? The swings of emotions
What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make? Fail to forecast.
What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
1. you can't make money if you don't sell the product 2. bad employees are like cancer 3. know when you're going to run out of money
Full bio:
David is an experienced bootstrapping entrepreneur with deep industry experience in online commerce, food transactions, and market expansion. He's invested in, helped operate, and sold 3 companies to date.
Originally in 2003, David co-founded YNot Advertising and Lionmenus.com (acquired by Orderup in 2012, a Groupon, Inc company).
In 2009, David purchased 1/2 of the markets from YNot and created College Advertising Solutions to market and grow college branded online restaurant guides.
In 2014, David merged one of his brands with 2Dollary Delivery in Gainesville, FL to develop a more targeted delivery service platform (acquired by Doorstep Delivery in 2015).
College Advertising Solutions was self funded by David and grew to a multi million dollar business (acquired by Eatstreet, Inc in 2016).
Editor's Note: Splash is Vator's startup conference, gathering top CEOs to share their lessons learned, and highlighting promising new ones. Oper was one of the finalist, Top 8 who competed at the Vator Splash competition.This year's winner and runner-up were Industry and Arbiclaims, respective.
Our annual Post Seed conference is around the corner on Dec. 1 at The Village in San Francisco. Speakers include Chamath Palihapitiya (Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP) and Jeff Lawson (Founder, CEO & Chairman,Twilio) and many more. Join us! REGISTER HERE. Be eligible to get a complimentary ticket to Post Seed. Join the Vator Investment Club before Thanksgiving. Join VIC.
